Dugar Hotala, a member of the
Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, passed out
fliers
to patrons who watched “Mongolian Ping Pong,” at the entrance of
the Aurora Fox Arts Center.

“The [Inner] Mongolians are
losing their identity [and] their culture,” he said. “ They’re
ashamed of being Mongolian [and] speaking Mongolian in front of
[the] Chinese.”

The flier says, thousands of
Mongolians were accused of being traitors from the 1950s to the
80s. These Mongolians were tortured because “their hearts
weren’t beating toward [the capital] Peking – and never will.”

The actual movie drew a favorable
response from the large audience. The film follows the tale of
three boys who find a ping-pong ball by their homes in rural
Mongolia.

“I was uncomfortable and
ashamed,” Hotala said after the movie. “No one’s that stupid,”
referring to the simple nature of the main characters.

Prior to the start of the film,
Ariumbold Mijiddorj performed the morin khuur, a traditional
Mongolian stringed instrument, to the audience.

The second film of the night,
director Kim Ki-duk’s “The Bow,” is a story of a 60-year-old
man, a 16-year-old girl and their relationship living on a boat.
Though the crowd wasn’t as large as the first movie, most of the
seats were filled.